Affinity Center International

INTEGRATED MARKETING

Project Strategy

As a start-up ACI needed brand awareness among association executives and then their gain buy-in to offer its loyalty program to their members. We created a strategy that included face-to-face marketing, digital marketing, social media and more to reach the various audiences with messaging that earned their business. After helping ACI establish a healthy client base, we communicated the benefits of the program to the associations’ members primarily through email marketing and social media.

Project Execution

Face-to-Face Marketing

ACI made a big splash at ASAE’s Annual Meeting and left with 300 leads in its first year exhibiting. We designed an attention-grabbing “association superhero” booth that used multi-media stations to easily explain the program and give attendees live demonstrations. The booth had fun activities and giveaways that tied to the theme, including a “weight-lifting” challenge and photo-ops with superheroes.

We engaged heavily in pre-event marketing, using social media, PR, print ads, web banners and emails and creating a special microsite on ACI’s website focused on our ASAE experience to drive traffic to ACI. Equally as important was the post-event marketing where we helped the sales team follow up on leads with appropriate communications.

Content Marketing and Social Media

We produced a variety of content designed to help people—association executives and members—understand the program, see the value to themselves as well as the organization, and encourage them to use it. Through videos, both executives and members could understand how AchieveLinks worked before establishing accounts. Using infographics and white papers, ACI established its thought leadership around the concept of member loyalty.

ACI distributed content through Facebook pages and Twitter accounts geared to unique audiences as well as LinkedIn and YouTube accounts and a well-read blog. We managed the social networks and helped brainstorm content for the blog to keep the conversation active and engaging. Our goal was to provide valuable information to the industry in order to grow and maintain member loyalty.

Websites

We designed the main corporate website with a clean, “Apple-like” look desired by ACI that spoke to multiple audiences, guiding them through the decision-making process to participate in the program. As the company developed over the first two years, the site underwent a few redesigns to adapt to the changes in company direction.

Email Marketing

Reaching members on a regular basis to promote use of AchieveLinks was a primary focus for ACI. We used a well-planned email campaign that touched our audience with different topical emails throughout the month. The emails highlighted timely deals within the program.